The Penalty Box

Say hello to December.  It’s entered with a profound statement in the form of a small blanket of snow.  Something to remind me that while I do live in a temperate rainforest, it certainly can do whatever the hell it wants sometimes.  Then, just as quickly, we said goodbye to it; the good ol’ reliable west coast rain came to wash it away, further reinforcing the fact that Vancouver has two types of weather: “rain” and “about to rain.”  Occasionally there’s “needs some bloody rain,” but that’s rare.

Say hello to Christmas shopping.  Technically I’ve started.  I have a few things left to get, which means I need to sharpen my elbows.  Gotta love how everyone gets into the holiday spirit by being as rude as possible in the overcrowded ratholes they call “malls.”

Say hello to Christmas parties.  Yep, another year, another company Christmas party.  It was really well done; the office manager at my company is really good at her job.  Reminds me of how Noah used to organize major events in a relatively short amount of time while somehow managing to keep his studies going.  Well okay, maybe Noah didn’t study all that much, but he’s bloody brilliant enough to keep up his GPA.  Or at least make it sound like he knows what he’s talking about.  Anyways, the party was good.  I would’ve said awesome, but I didn’t win anything, and so perpetuated my horrible luck at any kind of draw/raffle/prize contest.  No matter, a good time was had by all, complete with a few developers kickin’ it old school on the dance floor.  It seems the crazier types are the ones with kids.  Not surprising when you think about it.  I know I drove my parents nuts.

Say hello to scheduling madness.  With family events up the wazoo and my sister coming home to visit, along with a few friends who have exiled themselves to the nether regions (read: armpits) of this country also visiting, it’ll prove to be a rather hectic latter half of December.  Speaking of family, I still need to find something for the family Secret Santa gift exchange (done with aunts, uncles, cousins etc).  Shopping for family is hard.

Goodbyes are hard.  Today was the last day of one of my co-workers, John.  He’s leaving to follow his entrepreneurial spirit and run his site Platerage.  Had a few beers with him after work with some other co-workers.  Getting to know some of your co-workers outside of work is a healthy exercise in my mind, helps you work together better.  Unless you work with jerks, and then it can’t really be helped.  It wasn’t until yesterday that I felt like I was in a normal corporate company though.  I couldn’t really relate to Dilbert or The Office with my job, and that felt weird as a programmer.  But then, the HR manager gave a little goodbye present to John: a mouse encased in Jello.  If you watched The Office, you know what I mean.  If you didn’t, well, it’s still pretty damn funny.  I figure I’d give his site another plug as he heads off into the land of self-employment.  Perhaps readership of about two dozen (I round up okay? ) of this blog can make use of it.
It’s also almost time to say goodbye to 2007.  A calendar year without school, the growth of a small company to a medium sized company and just the learning experience of working with people was pretty cool.  The aspect of human interaction is still quite fascinating to me.  It’s interesting to see how people react to each other and to learn about entirely different sides of people you never see, whether you are the cause of their actions or not.  Maybe I should’ve done a masters in HCI.  Ah well, maybe if my career gets stagnant I’ll consider it.  Right now the problem solving part of my job is holding my interest quite well.
Say goodbye to another week.  Hello weekend and maybe actually getting off my lazy butt and going Christmas shopping.